I'd Rather Die
by Grace-Logan
Summary: Kageyama gives his help to an ungrateful Kindaichi on a job where he may have lost his life.


"I'm gonna get caught." Kindaichi's voice crackled across the intercom connecting each member of the team.

Kageyama frowned and clicked his mic on. He could see Kindaichi from his path, but would he make it in time?

"I'm coming over there, can you hold out for another few seconds?" He asked, his voice was calm and smooth, not a crack to be heard, he was in his element and had nobody pursuing him, they were all dead from a while ago.

He heard a scoff through the earpiece and calculated his next route out the window and down a floor.

"Of course I can. What you think I'm not good enough for at least that. I don't need your help King." Kindaichi spat his codename as if it were poison and he inadvertently flinched, he hated when people did that, he had no idea what he had done to make them all hate him so much.

"We don't leave people behind Kindaichi. I'm coming over there whether you like it or not." He snapped back racing past window after window looking for one with something he could use to fling himself where he needed to go. He found it, the tassel of the long curtains wouldn't hold out long with his weight being snapped onto it but it was the best he could do. He heard Kindaichi click his tongue as he grabbed the tassel and jumped through the window breaking the glass as he joined the outside world.

"Whatever."

He was dropping fast, the tassel snapped straight and swung him into the window, he felt it give and gave a little swing of his own to launch himself back into the white stone mansion right behind Kindaichi as glass shattered around him and right in front of at least 20 guards that had been hired to 'protected' their target and failed.

His eyes were narrowed and sharp, a shiny, daunting black dagger appeared in each hand and he was running at the guards, eyes unfocused on any one thing as if he were seeing everything at once. He met them a second later, raising his blades to slice the necks of each guard beside him when he entered the pack of enemy bodies. He twisted and turned, wriggling in the smallest spaces to avoid major injury all the while delivering devastating blows of his own to any limb unlucky enough to be put in his reach; knees hit the floor at the same rate bodies did, those he hadn't killed in one hit left to suffer a few moments longer before he ended their lives.

It was over in less than three minutes, stealth and cleanliness being discarded for quick dispatch of his enemies leaving him covered in uneven splatters of blood and body matter from head to foot. Kindaichi had stopped running, turned and stared at him open mouthed, his eyes holding a slight amount of concealed fear and awe before he snapped out of it and glared at Kageyama.

"I told you I didn't need your help." He snapped. Kageyama wiped his daggers on a clean piece of his uniform and settled them in the concealed holsters on his arms.

"You said you were going to get caught Kindaichi, we don't leave anyone behind. First of all we don't have the people to waste a life like that and second nobody could fill your place. If you want to die you have plenty of weapons on you and if you wanted to be tortured before hand we've got enemies everywhere, all who would be happy try and squeeze any piece of information they can out of you." Kageyama snapped back stomping up to him. Kindaichi was dumbstruck.

"Let's go." Kageyama snapped stomping past him, returning to the jog he'd held down the first corridor he'd been running in. "Kindaichi." He called when he didn't hear footsteps following him. Reassured by the following puff of Kindaichi's leather boots against the plush carpet he picked up the pace and sprinted for the meet up point with Kindaichi in tow.

Kunimi raised an eyebrow at Kindaichi when he and Kageyama entered the cavern they'd set as their rendezvous location from the top of a pile of crates. Kageyama slowed his pace, jogged over to the back wall and started tapping away with his ear on the rock, Kindaichi stopped in front of Kunimi and they watched him from afar.

"What happened to him?" Kunimi asked lowly, starring at the blood dripping on the floor at irregular intervals worried it had created a trail.

"Don't worry, it didn't create a trail." Kindaichi responded instantly, Kunimi smirked, Kindaichi knew him so well. "It's not even his blood." He went on. "I doubt he's even got a scratch on him to show for that bloody massacre." He spat, Kunimi looked a little shocked and they continued to stare at their third.

"Kindaichi?"

"What is it King?" Kindaichi snapped, he blinked and missed the slight stiffening of Kageyama's shoulders.

"The game the newbie's at the table across from were playing when we got this mission. They were playing a card game. What was it called?" He asked, Kindaichi frowned, he knew what they'd been playing but how it had any relevance at all at the moment baffled him.

"Would you just focus on getting us out of here. I don't want to be captured because you get caught up in idle chatter."

Kageyama sighed. "Would you just tell me what game they were playing. They were yelling something when I got a look at the code and I can't remember the last two.. Whatever they were. I need to know what they were playing."

Kindaichi threw Kunimi a look and they knew they were thinking the same thing, 'since when did Kageyama forget things important to their mission'?

"They were playing Mole. One of the newbie's had won and was hooting like an owl while the rest of his friends laughed." Kindaichi replied, Kageyama nodded and started mumbling to himself the same four pieces of code over and over under his breath. To-Ri-No-20. The wall shook and shifted and Kageyama got to his feet, he took two steps in and placed his hand on the wall. From where they were standing they couldn't see the white of his knuckles when he turned to them with a glare.

"Hurry up, we're leaving." He snapped making no move to leave before they did. They looked at each other, since when did he tell them to leave or even wait for them to move off first? He was usually the first to jump into the mission and the first to leave, always putting himself first and keeping them at his back. If they didn't hate him they'd have been able to see past his misused actions and words.

He turned and jogged off into the dank, darkness of the pathway in the stone. Kunimi jumped down from the crates and both him and Kindaichi jogged off after Kageyama side by side. They caught him quickly, too quickly for their liking. Something was wrong. Something was off. Kageyama hadn't even acknowledged them yet. His pace wasn't as demanding as it normally was when they were escaping. His breath was coming too fast. The ground was flat but he stumbled and fell. They caught him before he could even fall halfway and hauled him to his feet. They had no time to check for injuries through the blood that coated him, they could only hope none of it was his. He didn't get his feet back under him, that was the biggest shock of all, his breathing had slowed to a pace they'd only heard when he was well and truly asleep.

His skin though, was clammy and cold, his eyes closed and his face relaxed. He was gone, out like a light, dead to the world around him and it hit Kindaichi like a brick being dropped on his head how much effort Kageyama had had to put into decimating all those guys without help in the time that he had.

"He must be exhausted." Kindaichi said. Kunimi snorted and shot him a look.

"Never would have guessed. What the hell happened when he helped you?" Kunimi asked sarcasm and incredulous tones equally spread across his words.

"He slaughtered over fifteen guys, all of them bigger than him in under three minutes. Speed and practicality over stealth and cleanliness." Kindaichi replied. They looked down at Kageyama's peaceful face, their hatred forgotten for moments like these when he showed his absolute trust in them by letting down his guard.

"Shit."

Kindaichi snorted and stumbled a little in his pace, regaining his footing almost instantly.

"You don't say. He's a freaking monster. Help put him on my back, he'll wear us out too much like this." They didn't stop, Kunimi moved behind Kindaichi and hauled Kageyama's dead weight off the ground with quite a struggle, no matter how lithe the kid was he was made up of pure muscle and god damn it but he weighed ton when he wasn't helping.

Kunimi grunted with exertion and practically threw Kageyama's body onto Kindaichi. Kindaichi stumbled again, grabbed Kageyama's legs before he fell off, regained his footing and speed up all within a matter of seconds and Kunimi was back by his side.


End file.
